Reform could boost faith in liberalism

‘American liberalism saved capitalism because it did not see capitalism as perfect and insisted on reform, [and it] understood the importance of active government in fostering social justice without rejecting the benefits of economic markets,” columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. argued in a 2007 compendium of essays, “Liberalism for a New Century.” Liberals’ signature programs — ranging from enacting the minimum wage to Medicare — improved Americans’ quality of life, reduced poverty rates and promoted equality of opportunity for women and minorities in the 20th century.

Now in the 21st century, the debate about reforming America’s health care system has entered its final stage. Amid the cable news chatter about bending the “cost curve,” the merits of the “public option” and the coming of government “death panels,” commentators have often shed more heat than light on the broader implications for liberalism’s fate in the health care reform discussion.

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This debate is happening in a post-Ted Kennedy age and could be an acid test for the future of American liberalism. Since President Barack Obama’s election, signs suggest that a rising progressive majority has not yet been constructed.

Public opinion research shows the stubborn persistence of the idea that government is too big and needs to be scaled down. Liberalism’s most effective critics have cited the bailouts of General Motors and Citibank as symbols of what ails Washington and what government hasn’t gotten right during the Great Recession.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy defined a liberal as “someone who looks ahead and not behind.” The then-presidential candidate added, as Dionne notes in his essay, that a liberal is “someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions [and] cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs.”

Health care reform’s most obvious strength is that it would build on the foundation of Social Security and Medicare, substantially expanding Americans’ access to medical coverage. Akin to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to curb the excesses of unregulated capitalism, the reform would help defend individuals from the whims of a marketplace and against insurers more interested in bottom lines than in customers’ health. These proposals embody liberal ideals at their humane best.

The current proposals also define liberalism as a force for pragmatic reason. The legislation would build on, not abolish, the existing health care system. It proposes to take gradual steps that will improve access to coverage, attempt to control skyrocketing health costs, reduce budget deficits and ease the burden on larger companies and small businesses imposed by the current employer-based health care system.